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Shortest Battles in UK Robot Wars
Below is a list of the thirty quickest battles in the history of the UK series of Robot Wars, as of the 2016 series. It is measured by when the losing robot is officially immobilised, or the fight is taken to a judges decision; however the latter lasts the full five minutes of fighting and therefore the battles are too long to appear on the list. The battle times below are taken from the moment 'activate' is called to the time when a losing robot is deemed to be "officially" immobilised. The criteria of official immobilisation is only met when: *A competitor robot is thrown out of the arena. *The losing robot falls into the pit while not deemed immobilised. *An immobilised robot is attacked by the House Robots (Series 1 to Series 4), counted out by Refbot (Extreme Series 1 to Series 7), or counted out ten seconds after immobilisation (2016 series). The most common means in which a battle can end quickly is if a robot is flipped out of the arena, with sixteen of the battles listed below involving a robot being eliminated this way. Less frequently, a fight can end quickly if a robot drives, or is pushed into, the pit. These quick battles often involve robots equipped with a powerful weapon capable of out of the arena flips (e.g. a high pressure flipper), or which feature high pushing power, which enables them to gain sufficient speed, manoeuvrability and traction to push another competitor and swiftly dispatch it into the pit. NOTE: There are some battles where one robot does not move from the start and is deemed immobilised almost immediately.Dreadnaut vs Rattus Rattus, Evil Weevil vs Panzer, and Spartacus 2 vs Flippa are examples of these, where one robot did not move at all during the battle. There is some debate about whether these bouts count as a conventional "battle", and therefore to aid clarification, these types of battles are not included in the list. Shortest Battle Record This record was first set in Series 1. Across seven series of the original UK Robot Wars, as well as both series of Robot Wars Extreme and the 2016 series, there have been five holders of the record: #'Recyclopse' (against Scrapper, 0:15) #'Cunning Plan' (against Demolisher, 0:14) #'Cerberus' (against Griffon, 0:10) #'Dantomkia' (against IG-88, 0:08) #'Gravity' (against Dantomkia, 0:06) Interestingly, Cerberus took the record from the University of Reading by beating one of their machines. Similarly, Gravity set the incumbent record by defeating then-current record holder Dantomkia. When Robot Wars: The Ultimate Guide was published, it incorrectly identified the bout between Spawn Again and Evolution as holding the Shortest Battle Record at that time. In reality, that battle was the ninth quickest, with Cerberus vs Griffon holding the record at that time. The battle between Wheely Big Cheese and Axe-Awe from Series 5 was also described later on in the guide, and while it was not the shortest battle, its battle duration was declared to be shorter than that of Spawn Again vs Evolution. Quickest Immobilisation A quick immobilisation did not necessarily entail the battle being over, as the battle is marked as over once the House Robots intervene or the Refbot's counter hits ten. However, there are a few recognised cases of a very quick immobilisation. Prior to these, the Shortest Battle Record overlapped the Quickest Immobilisation. Interestingly, two of them were inflicted by Ripper. The following are listed in descending order: *'Carbide' (against Apollo, 0:05) *'Storm 2' (against ICU, 0:05) *'Diotoir' (against Dome, 0:05) *'Panic Attack' (against Killertron, 0:05) *'Firestorm 3' (against Sir Chromalot, 0:05) *'Arnold A. Terminegger' (against Hypno-Disc, 0:05) *'Ripper' (against Robochicken, 0:04) *'Behemoth' (against Tartarus, 0:04) *'Hypno-Disc' (against Firestorm 3, 0:04) *'Firestorm 3' (against Panic Attack, 0:03) *'Spawn Again' (against Diotoir, 0:03) *'Ripper' (against Daisy-Cutter, 0:03) *'Kadeena Machina' (against Dee, 0.02) *'Pitbull' (against Sumpthing, 0:02) *'Dominator 2' (against Henry 2, 0:02) The Shortest Battles Note: Few battles, even the very short ones, are shown on TV without any footage cut. Therefore it is impossible to know the true durations of all these battles. For consistency's sake, length is measured based on the TV-edited version of the battle. *Battles coloured in gold have held the record for shortest battle at any one time. Category:UK Series Category:Terminology